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In 1928 Octaviano A. Larrazolo, a free-thinking
Republican lawyer from New Mexico who immigrated
to the United States as a boy, was elected the first
Hispanic Senator in U.S. history. A champion of equal
opportunity who was known throughout the state as
the “silver-tongued orator”—a reference to his eloquent
rhetoric in Spanish and English—Larrazolo built a political
career around his persistent defense of Hispanic civil rights.
He managed to transcend New Mexico’s machine politics,
and though he made enemies in both parties, he was “the
great champion of the Spanish-American people, always
uncompromising in his concern for their welfare.… He
was their acknowledged spokesman,” said his fellow New
Mexican Senator Sam Bratton.1

Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo was born on December
7, 1859, to Octaviano Larrazolo, an affluent landowner,
and Donaciana Larrazolo in El Valle de Allende,
Chihuahua, Mexico.2 Larrazolo grew up in relative comfort
and was taught to read and write while he was young. He
later attended school in town but withdrew after being
beaten by his teacher.3 His situation changed rapidly
during the mid-1860s when the Larrazolo family was left
destitute after supporting Benito Juárez’s revolt against
the French occupation of Mexico. In 1863 French troops
ransacked the Larrazolos’ home after forcing the family to
give them quarter.4

In late November 1870, as his family struggled with
insolvency, Larrazolo left home to attend school in
the United States under the care of John B. Salpointe,
a Catholic bishop.5 For the next five years, Larrazolo
attended private schools in Tucson, Arizona, and Las
Cruces, New Mexico. After completing his primary studies
in 1875, Larrazolo enrolled at St. Michael’s College in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.6 A year later, he left St. Michael’s
and returned to Tucson, where he worked odd jobs, selling
shoes and teaching classes.7 Unsure about his future,
he briefly considered joining the priesthood before he
accepted a teaching position in San Elizario, Texas.8 Fluent
in English and Spanish, Larrazolo taught during the day
and studied law at night. In preparation for a legal career,
Larrazolo became a U.S. citizen on December 11, 1884,
and registered with Texas’ Democratic Party. In 1885 he
was appointed clerk of the U.S. District and Circuit Courts
for the Western District of Texas.9 He married Rosalia
Cobos in 1881, and they had two sons, Juan Bautista and
José Maria, and a daughter, Rosalia. His wife died in 1891,
the day after their daughter was born, and the following
year Larrazolo married María Garcia, with whom he had
nine children: Octaviano Ambrosio, Josefina, Carlos G.,
Luis Fernando, Heliodoro A., Maria, Justiniano Santiago,
Pablo Frederico, and Rafael E.10

Larrazolo began his political career in the winter of
1886, winning the clerkship of El Paso’s district court.
He was re-elected in 1888 and admitted to the Texas bar
the same year. Larrazolo was elected district attorney for
Texas’ 34th Judicial District in El Paso in 1890 and again
in 1892.11 After his second term, Larrazolo moved to
New Mexico and opened a law office in Las Vegas, where
he quickly became enmeshed in Democratic politics and
earned a reputation as a captivating speaker.

In 1900, 1906, and 1908, Larrazolo ran unsuccessfully
for the office of Territorial Delegate to the U.S. Congress. As
a Democrat, Larrazolo faced an uphill struggle from the start
because New Mexico’s majority-Hispanic population leaned
Republican. Moreover, he ran for office as New Mexico’s
political structure underwent a fundamental change.

As a Hispanic Democrat, Larrazolo was a minority
member of the state’s minority party, and as the new,
predominantly Anglo-Democratic population grew, it
became more resistant to the ambitions of Hispanic
politicians. Despite receiving little support from his own
party’s base in east New Mexico, Larrazolo nearly won
the elections of 1906 and 1908 because he managed to
court Hispanic Republicans in the central and western
parts of the state.12 “The election would have been won if
the eastern Democratic counties had but given the head
of the ticket the same support they gave the balance of
the ticket,” a frustrated Larrazolo told the Democratic
Territorial Central Committee.13 Tensions peaked in 1910
when Democrats refused to send Hispanic delegates to
New Mexico’s constitutional convention and ultimately
opposed provisions that guaranteed Spanish speakers their
civil rights.14

Chastened by his experiences, and unwilling to
associate with “a party whose principle of ‘equal rights to
all’” was “but a shining platitude,” Larrazolo broke with
New Mexico’s Democrats in 1911.15 In many respects
it was a difficult decision, since the Republicans offered
few alternatives. Throughout the 1900s, Larrazolo’s
relationship with the Republican Party had been notably
confrontational, and while Anglo-Democrats shunned
him, the GOP repeatedly mocked him and accused him of
race-baiting.16 Republican newspapers criticized Larrazolo
and his supporters for “working the race prejudice racket
for all they are worth,” and claimed that Larrazolo had
“appealed to race hatred in the Spanish-speaking sections
of the Territory.”17 As late as 1908, the Santa Fe New
Mexican accused Larrazolo of “posing as a high-toned
decendant [sic] of the kings of Spain and as a noble
Spaniard of the bluest blood, although he was born in
Chihuahua, Mexico in what the New Mexican is informed,
is an Indian settlement.”18

Abandoned by Democrats and a perennial target for
Republicans, Larrazolo began to set his own course.
In 1910, as he stumped in favor of New Mexico’s
constitution, Larrazolo attacked the machine politics that
he felt were exploiting Hispanic voters across the state. “I
do not believe that it is the duty of a citizen to surrender
his conscience to any man or any set of men, or to any
party of any name,” he said.19 “If it is true that there are
bosses over you and you are not free,” he told his listeners,
“you … have allowed yourselves to be controlled by other
men but you will be controlled by bosses only as long as
you permit the yoke to rest on you.” Larrazolo asked if
New Mexico would approve a constitution guaranteeing
civil protections, or whether Hispanic New Mexicans
would essentially “remain in slavery.” Larrazolo seemed to
sense that New Mexico was dangerously close to following
the lead of the American South, where Jim Crow laws had
systematically stripped African Americans of their rights in
the half-century since congressional Reconstruction. “Every
native citizen must unite in supporting this constitution
because it secures to you people of New Mexico your
rights—every one of them; the rights also of your children
and in such a manner that they can never be taken away,”
he continued. It was imperative that Hispanics support
the constitution, he told them, “if you want to acquire
your freedom and transmit this sacred heritage in the land
hallowed by the blood of your forefathers who fought to
protect it.” “Do not wait until you are put in the position
of Arizona which in two years will be able to disfranchise
every Spanish speaking citizen.”20 Larrazolo feared that
without voting rights, Hispanic landowners would be
forced to sell out to the railroad.21

His speech in 1910 was a milestone. Larrazolo had
forced both parties to acknowledge the concerns of
Hispanic New Mexicans, and in doing so he became
the most vocal leader of his generation. A year later, still
attacking New Mexico’s political system, Larrazolo said he
had registered as a Republican so that he could “administer
equal rights to all.” Addressing a group of Hispanic
Republicans, Larrazolo said, “I have not come to you to
ask you to wage war, my friends who are descendants of
the noble conquistadores, with the Anglo-Saxon race,”
because whether they liked it or not New Mexico needed
the Anglos’ capital investments.22

Having been cast by both parties as a race agitator,
Larrazolo remained nonetheless a powerful influence
in state politics. Many Republicans blamed him for the
numerous Democratic victories in the first election after
New Mexico attained statehood. Though neither Anglo-Democrats nor Anglo-Republicans, nor even moderate
Hispanics, liked what he said about “slavery,” “bosses,”
“freedom,” “war,” and their “sacred heritage,” they could
not ignore him. Larrazolo had wide name recognition,
spoke eloquently, and was not afraid to break with his
party to protect Hispanic civil rights.23 Though a registered
Republican, he campaigned for Hispanic candidates of
both parties, among them his close friend Democrat
Ezequiel C. de Baca, who became governor in 1916.24

Two years later, in 1918, New Mexican Republicans
nominated Larrazolo for governor. Democrats had already
selected their own Hispanic candidate, Felix García.
Despite Larrazolo’s reputation as a political liability,
Republican leaders hoped he would draw votes both from
older Anglo conservatives and Hispanic voters. Accepting
his party’s nod during World War I, Larrazolo challenged
the GOP to exert the strong leadership it had shown
during the Civil War. “The Republican party is the only
one which knows the science of making men free,” he
said. “It made this union free. Why is it not the party
in conjunction with the allies in these later days to be
entrusted with the task of making the whole world free?”25

Though Larrazolo touted the Republican Party’s “noble
heritage,” he struggled to clarify his own past, and his
reputation for generating controversy gave many voters
pause.26 Factionalism and personal rivalries continued
to divide Hispanic voters, and some worried that
Larrazolo’s bold approach would undermine his earlier
accomplishments. Anglos, too, were skeptical, and to allay
fears that he would favor Hispanic interests over New
Mexican interests, Larrazolo declared, “I shall put into
practice the principles that I have defended and on account
of which undoubtedly I have made many enemies. Those
principles are: ‘Equal rights and privileges for all citizens
of New Mexico without regard to ancestry.’”27 Amid a
crippling drought and a statewide outbreak of the flu,
Larrazolo won by a scant 1,319 votes.28

Larrazolo’s ambitious agenda as governor (1919 to 1921)
was alternately supported and attacked by Republicans.
Larrazolo appealed to the federal government for drought
relief, created a department of public health, and as a
pioneer in the idea of public domain, urged the national
administration to cede unused federal lands to the states.
For his efforts he was named president of the League of
Public Lands.29 In 1919 Larrazolo declared martial law
to quell a strike by coal miners in McKinley and Colfax
Counties, and with a majority-Republican legislature,
passed measures that restricted child labor, mandated
regular school attendance, raised schoolteachers’ salaries,
and ensured that bilingual instruction was available in
New Mexico’s schools. But Larrazolo had an independent
streak during a period in New Mexican politics when
independent minds were scorned, and he had spent his
formative years as a Democrat. He backed the passage of
the 19th Amendment, and unlike the state and national
legislatures, supported President Woodrow Wilson’s call
for a League of Nations. He was derided nationally after
he pardoned Mexican troops accused of killing American
citizens during Pancho Villa’s raid, prompting the Chicago
Daily Tribune to observe, “New Mexico seems to have
been reclaimed by Mexico … without even taking the
trouble to secede.”30 But it was his decision to pass income
tax legislation that finally alienated his party at home.
Business owners and miners threatened lawsuits, and the
Republican legislature, led by old guard conservatives,
repealed the measure. But Larrazolo vetoed the repeal, at
great political cost, and the income tax remained.31 As his
term ended, Republican dissenters vowed, “No more Old
Mexico in New Mexico.”32

Though Larrazolo was not renominated for governor, he
was not away from politics for long.33 He moved back to El
Paso and opened a law office, but returned to New Mexico
two years later. Despite his chronic asthma, Larrazolo
spoke throughout the state, and in 1923 he was nominated
by the state legislature for the governorship of Puerto Rico.
Although President Harding appointed another candidate,
Larrazolo used his renewed popularity as a springboard
back into public service. He lost election to a seat on the
state supreme court in 1924, but was elected to the state
house of representatives from Bernalillo County in 1927.34
As a state legislator, Larrazolo addressed some of the same
concerns he did as governor, chief among them state land
ownership and land reclamation.35

Shortly after Larrazolo won re-election to New Mexico’s
house of representatives in 1928, Democratic U.S. Senator
Andrieus A. Jones died. Republican Bronson M. Cutting,
who had been appointed to Jones’s seat, asked Larrazolo
to run for the unexpired term set to end six months later
on March 4, 1929. The Republican Party ran Larrazolo
for the unexpired term and Cutting for the full term.
By the time Larrazolo reluctantly accepted his party’s
nomination in September 1928, the unexpired term was
nearly complete. In a final, lasting attack on New Mexico’s
political arrangement, he demanded at the nominating
convention that the 1928 Republican ticket be split evenly
between Anglo and Hispanic candidates.36 Larrazolo’s
stance troubled some Pecos Valley Republicans, but older
party stalwarts noted that he had advocated for split
tickets as early as 1911, and that his nomination passed
because he had long been “an outstanding champion
of the native people.”37 Larrazolo promised he would
work in Washington “to keep respected the name and
reputation of the Spanish-American people,” and New
Mexico’s Republican press rallied behind him.38 Larrazolo
won the Senate race that year with nearly 56 percent of
the vote, becoming the first Hispanic Senator. The Los
Angeles Times, which had once charged Larrazolo with
race-baiting, believed he would make a fitting ambassador
to Mexico once his term ended.39 But Larrazolo’s doctors
cautioned him against moving to Washington since he
was 69 and in poor health.

Larrazolo presented his credentials and was sworn into
office on December 7, 1928, but his arrival in Washington
garnered little national attention. The Washington Post
commented only that his election was “a striking illustration
of the melting pot” before noting that Larrazolo had
violated the rules of decorum and shocked fellow Senators
by lighting a cigarette on the chamber floor.40 The Mexican
Senate, on the other hand, proud that a native son had
climbed to the heights of American politics, wired Larrazolo
a message with its “greetings and best wishes,” which a
Senate clerk read on the floor.41

In keeping with his legislative interests, Larrazolo was
appointed to the Agriculture and Forestry, Public Lands
and Surveys, and Territories and Insular Possessions
Committees, but shortly into his tenure he came down
with the flu.42 Having missed votes because of his illness,
he went home over the winter recess. Returning to
Washington shortly after the beginning of the new year,
Larrazolo introduced S. 5374 “to provide for a military
and industrial school for boys and girls in the State of
New Mexico.”43 It would be his only legislative action.
Ten days later, on January 25, a gravely ill Larrazolo
returned to New Mexico for good. On his behalf in early
February, Senator Otis F. Glenn of Illinois introduced S.
5682, to settle outstanding claims with Mexico. While at
home, Larrazolo suffered a stroke, and his formal term
in the Senate ended in March as he recuperated with his
family.44 Larrazolo’s health continued to deteriorate over
the next year. He died on April 7, 1930.45

12Larrazolo lost all three races by close margins. In 1900 Larrazolo
lost to Republican Bernard S. Rodey by 3,700 votes out of 39,414
total cast, or about 9 percent. In 1906 Larrazolo lost to Republican
William H. Andrews, Jr., by .58% (266 votes out of a total 45,775).
He lost to Andrews again in 1908 by .69% (388 votes out of a total
55,580). See Report of the Secretary of the Territory, 1909–1910
and Legislative Manual, 1911 (Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing
Company, 1911): 138–140. See also Charles Montgomery,
“Becoming ‘Spanish-American,’” Journal of American Ethnic
History 20 (Summer 2001): 71; Phillip B. Gonzales, “The Political
Construction of Latino Nomenclatures in Twentieth-Century New
Mexico,” Journal of the Southwest 35 (Summer 1993): 161. Though
Larrazolo was a Hispanic Democrat in the predominantly Hispanic
Republican section of north-central New Mexico, he benefited from
what one political scientist calls “organized groups of dissidents
from the majority [Republican] party.” See Jack E. Holmes, Politics
in New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1967): 154. See also “Republicans Put Strong Ticket in Field at
Capital,” 4 October 1918, Santa Fe New Mexican: 1.

13As quoted in Larrazolo, Octaviano A. Larrazolo: 75.

14Charles Montgomery, The Spanish Redemption: Heritage, Power,
and Loss on New Mexico’s Upper Rio Grande (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2002): 81.“Impending statehood portended
the rapid expansion of Anglo American control in New Mexico
at the same time that the importation of racial prejudice was
palpably evident in the region,” writes Phillip B. Gonzales. See
Gonzales “The Political Construction of Latino Nomenclatures
in Twentieth-Century New Mexico,” Journal of the Southwest:
158–167, as quoted on p. 166.

18“Should Be Defeated,” 27 October 1908, Santa Fe New Mexican:
4. For more information on race, ethnicity, and politics in New
Mexico at the turn of the 20th century see Montgomery, “Becoming
‘Spanish-American,’” Journal of American Ethnic History: 59–84;
Montgomery, The Spanish Redemption: 73–75.

27Montgomery, The Spanish Redemption: 84–85. An earlier political
scientist noted that “the shift of population [ran] strongly against
areas at the base of Republican strength in the period 1900–1920.”
See Holmes, Politics in New Mexico: 148; Córdova and Judah,
“Octaviano Larrazolo”: 20. As quoted in Larrazolo, Octaviano A.
Larrazolo: 102.

33In fact, Larrazolo was the last Hispanic governor of New Mexico
until 1974. See Montgomery, The Spanish Redemption: 88.

34Larrazolo, Octaviano A. Larrazolo: 169, 174.

35Ibid., 177–178.

36Ibid., 179. Larrazolo’s insistence on equal opportunity for Hispanic
candidates sparked lasting change, but Anglos continued to control
many offices, and the state in general remained relatively poor.
Montgomery, The Spanish Redemption: 88.

"Octaviano A. Larrazolo" in Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-2012. Prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of the Historian and the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2013.